Automatic Smart Irrigation System Using IOT

- India’s population has reached beyond 1.2 billion and the population rate is increasing day by day, so after 25-30 years there will be serious problem of food, such that the development of agriculture is necessary. Today, farmers incur the problem of water scarcity due to lack of rain. The main objective of this project is to provide an automatic irrigation system that saves time, money of the farmer. The traditional farm land irrigation techniques require manual intervention. With the automated technology of irrigation, the human intervention can be minimized. Whenever there is a change in humidity of the soil, the sensor senses the humidity change and irrigates the field automatically using a popular technology called the ‘Internet of Things’. The project makes use of simple IoT technology and is economic making it feasible even in economically backward areas.


I. INTRODUCTION
Ever imagined a world where machines or things communicate with each other. Imagine a network of physical objects-devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data. Machine to machine, machine to infrastructure, internet of intelligent things, intelligent system and that is Internet of Things (IoT) and its potential is huge.
IoT describes a world where just about anything can be connected and communicate in an intelligent fashion. In other words, with the Internet of Things, the physical world is becoming one big information system. IoT being one of the blooming technologies in today's world has various real time applications which prove to be really useful. The scope of the technology is vast promising to be one of the technologies of recent times.
With the water requirements in irrigation being large, there is a need for a smart irrigation system that can save about 80% of the water. This prototype aims at saving time and avoiding problems like constant vigilance. It also helps in water conservation by automatically providing water to the plants or gardens depending on their water requirements. It can also prove to be efficient in Agricultural fields, lawns and parks. As technology is advancing, there is always a chance of reducing risks and making work simpler. Embedded and micro controller systems provide solutions for many problems. This application precisely controls water system for gardens by using a sensor micro controller system. It is achieved by installing sensors in the field to monitor the soil temperature and soil moisture.
Smart irrigation systems estimate and measure diminution of existing plant moisture in order to operate an irrigation system, restoring water as needed while minimizing excess water use.
Intelligent automatic plant irrigation system concentrates watering plants regularly without human monitoring using a moisture sensor. The circuit is build around a comparator Op-amp (Operating Amplifier) and a timer which drives a relay to switch on a motor. The system uses a hardware component, which is subjected to variation with the environmental conditions. One may wonder why Smart irrigation is required. During manual irrigation, the water requirement of plants or crops is not monitored. Even when the soil is moist enough, water is still provided. This water is not absorbed by the plants and thus is wasted. Hence a system is used to monitor the water requirements.
This prototype monitors the amount of soil moisture and temperature. A predefined range of soil moisture and temperature is set, and can be varied with soil type or crop type. In case the moisture or temperature of the soil deviates from the specified range, the watering system is turned on or off. In case of dry soil and high soil temperature, it will activate the irrigation system, pumping water for watering the plants.
This technology is recommended for efficient automated irrigation systems and it may provide a valuable tool for conserving water planning and irrigation scheduling which is extendable to other similar agricultural crops. Maximum absorption of the water by the plant is ensured by spreading the water uniformly using a servo motor. So there is minimal wastage of water. This system also allows controlling the amount of water delivered to the plants when it is needed based on types of plants by monitoring soil moisture. This project can be used in large agricultural area where human effort needs to be minimized. Many aspects of the system can be customized and fine-tuned through software for a plant requirement. The system used a number of components which on the other hand are easy to operate or use.

II. EXISTING SYSTEM
In most existing systems, the threshold value of moisture is not taken into consideration and the field is irrigated at random time intervals, leading to over-irrigation or under irrigation of field and this in turn affects the crop productivity. There are cases where the threshold value of moisture is fixed leading to another disadvantage. Different crops need different environment condition to grow and when the moisture content of the system is fixed, conditions may not be appropriate for the crop's growth and yield. A method is proposed to monitor the soil moisture and the irrigation is done only when the moisture content goes below the threshold value.

SMART IRRIGATION
This prototype aims at saving time and avoiding problems like constant vigilance. It also helps in water conservation by automatically providing water to the plants or gardens depending on their water requirements. As technology is advancing, there is always a chance of reducing risks and making work simpler. Embedded and micro controller systems provide solutions for many problems. This application precisely controls water system for gardens by using a sensor micro controller system. It is achieved by installing sensors in the field to monitor the soil temperature and soil moisture which transmits the data to the microcontroller for estimation of water demands of plants.

INTELLIGENT IRRIGATION SYSTEM IN SENSOR NETWORKS
Irrigation is need of farmer to save water resource which is essential and need to use in minimum quantity because it is not free forever to use and not conversational resource. In drip irrigation water is given to root of plants to save water and stop land infertility and nutrition count. In irrigation farmer have to keep time table for irrigation which changes as per crop, soil and weather. Web based intelligent drip irrigation system is one and only solution to water management and precision agriculture. In web based system we can control water supply using solenoid valve. This whole system is micro control based and can be operated from remote location through web based so there is no need to concern about irrigation timing as per crop or soil condition. Sensor is used to take sensor reading of soil like soil moisture, temperature, air moisture and light micro controller take decision control by user (farmer). Web based intelligent irrigation system helps a farmer to take decision on water management in farm and there is no need to maintain irrigation time table .Irrigation time table can be fetch and map from agriculture university or government web site as per soil and crop type. It gives maximum profit from minimum cost.

AUTOMATED IRRIGATION SYSTEMS USING WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS
Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the soil. There are various technological improvements in irrigation including automated irrigation. Automated irrigation implies operation of the system without any manual intervention. An automated system utilizes technologies like timers, sensors, computers, mechanical appliances, etc. Here we are presenting a comparative study of optimizing irrigation using remotely monitored embedded system, zigbee or hotspot, using wireless sensor networks particularly for drip irrigation and a micro controller based optimization that uses cellular internet interface which allows data inspection and irrigation scheduling to be programmed through web page. Implementation of these systems can be potentially used in water limited geographical areas.

III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
The soil moisture sensor senses the amount of moisture content in the soil which is uploaded to the Arduino board. The Arduino board transfers the control over the system to the relay module which is responsible for switching operations. The relay module ensures proper irrigation of the field turning it on when the value of moisture is below the threshold value and turns off the supply when the moisture content is sufficient for the crop or plant thereby preventing under irrigation or over irrigation. The state of the relay module is indicated by the LED. A simple process flow representation of the system is shown in figure 1. From the representation, it is clearly understood that the working of the system is simple and can be controlled easily.

WORKING PRINCIPLE
The system consists of various hardware components that are put together to sense and irrigate the fields automatically. Each of these components has unique function to perform and the system attains full efficiency when each of these components work properly.

Construction
The soil moisture sensor is kept in the field in order to sense the moisture content in the soil regularly. The sensed information from the sensor can be either in analog form or digital form and they are connected to the Arduino board depending on the form of sensed information. The voltage from the Arduino is supplied to the Analog Digital Converter (ADC) and the relay module. The ground pin from the Arduino is connected to the ground of relay module.
The output from the Arduino is given to the relay module. The other side of the relay module is connected to the water pump through a 12V power supply. One end of the water pump is kept inside a water source and the other side is kept in the soil. Each of the components in the system is connected properly to ensure proper working of the system in order to make sure that it gives the best efficiency.

Work Flow
The soil moisture sensor kept in the soil senses the soil moisture regularly and sends the sensed data to the Arduino. The Embedded C program that is already uploaded into the Arduino contains the threshold value of moisture. The moisture must always be within the range in order to maintain the crop from damage. When the sensed value is found to be less than the value mentioned in the code, that is, if the moisture content in the soil is less than the threshold value, the control on the system is transferred to the relay module which performs the switching operation. The relay module now turns on the switch which allows the flow of water.
Another condition that should be taken into consideration is the prevention of over-irrigation in the field. The soil moisture sensor continues to sense the amount of moisture and when the field is provided with sufficient water, the relay module turns off the switch thereby preventing overirrigation. The state of the relay module can be identified by the LED found in it.

Fig.3 Circuit Connection
The water is supplied at regular intervals because the sensor senses the moisture regularly making it have the maximum efficiency of the system.

Merits
This technology is recommended for efficient automated irrigation systems and it may provide a valuable tool for conserving water planning and irrigation scheduling which is extendable to other similar agricultural crops. Maximum absorption of the water by the plant is ensured by spreading the water uniformly using a servo motor. So, there is minimal wastage of water.
This system also allows controlling the amount of water delivered to the plants when it is needed based on types of plants by monitoring soil moisture and temperature. This project can be used in large agricultural area where human effort needs to be minimized. Many aspects of the system can be customized and fine tuned through software for a plant requirement.

Demerits
The system fails in case of power failure and alternate arrangement for power has to be made so that maximum efficiency of the system can be attained. The working condition of each component has to be checked periodically because component failure has become a serious issue. Various other issues include the farmer's ignorance about the state of the system. The farmer has to visit the field in order to check the condition of the system at regular intervals.

RESULT
The smart irrigation system was tested on a garden plant. In the Arduino code, the moisture range was set as 40%-100%, providing optimum condition for plant growth. Moreover, this system proves to be cost effective and proficient in conserving water and reducing its wastage. The below figure  5 shows the moisture content being displayed on the monitor. This display of moisture takes place at regular intervals depending on the delay time mentioned in the program source code.

Fig.5 Moisture Display
The below figure 6 represents the watering of soil when the moisture content is below the threshold value. This irrigation or water flow is controlled by the relay module which performs the switching operations ON and OFF.

IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
In the present era, the farmers use irrigation technique through the manual control, in which the farmers irrigate the land at regular intervals. This process seems to consume more water and results in water wastage. Moreover, in dry areas where there is inadequate rainfall, irrigation becomes difficult. Hence, we require an automatic system that will precisely monitor and control the water requirements in the field. Installing Smart irrigation system saves time and ensures judicious usage of water. Moreover, this architecture uses Arduino which promises an increase in system life by reducing power consumption. It also reduces the human intervention therefore less energy of the farmer of the farmer is required.
Our project can be improvised by adding a Webscaper which can predict the weather and water the plants or crops accordingly. If rain is forecasted, less water is let out for the plants. Also, a GSM module can be included so that the user can control the system via smart phone. A water meter can be installed to estimate the amount of water used for irrigation and thus giving a cost estimation. A solenoid valve can be used for varying the volume of water flow. Furthermore, Wireless sensors can also be used. Monitoring of other growth or soil parameter can also be included just by connecting the sensors and modifying the source code of the project. This integration can also reduce the number of other hardware components used in the system thereby reducing the total cost of the system. The system will continuously send the data on the cloud. These data can also be accessed using Bluetooth on Android App. If there is no internet present, the farmer can control the system through the App that is the Semiautomatic system. The plant's growth can be detected earlier by measuring the pH content of the soil which can help the farmers in numerous ways. The farmer gets to know earlier that what crops can be grown in the field.